


among the stars

by TheQueenInTheNorth



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Not Canon Compliant, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:08:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29887113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueenInTheNorth/pseuds/TheQueenInTheNorth
Summary: Raina's grandmother had always been insistent that her destiny was out there and it was not the soulmate her wrist told her of.
Relationships: Will Daniels/Raina (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	among the stars

Grandmother had told her, over and over, that her destiny was not on her arm but among the stars. Raina watched the numbers on her wrist nonetheless.

They were high but so were most people's. It was rare to even be on the same continent as your soulmate, let alone close enough the numbers dropped to double digits.

So high numbers weren’t unusual, and most people never met their soulmate, but neither stopped Raina from tracing the numbers and wondering.

They moved when she or her soulmate did, going up and down a few numbers, and she liked making guesses on what her soulmate might be up to when she was sitting still. Jogging, sometimes, probably in a car at others. Nothing very exciting, really.

Until one day she woke up and the numbers wound around her wrist, over and over, like a bracelet of questions.

“What the fuck,”Raina mumbled to herself. There was no one to share the confusion with, not since grandmother was gone. But maybe, just maybe, that was the hint she needed. Among the stars.

(She checked, later that day, when her favourite librarian was around, the one who gave her sandwiches and never asked why she wasn’t in school at that time of day, but no astronaut was far enough to warrant such a number.)

The numbers remained high from that day on, so far from her reach, yet at the same time no further than they were already. There was no point in hoping for some soulmate, and with every passing year she thought there was less and less hope that her grandmother had been right about her having some sort of destiny.

That did not stop her from jumping at the chance to be allowed into Hydra’s chest of treasures, searching for a sign she did not quite believe in. They had so many wondrous things in their disgusting grip; if any collection could show her whatever was waiting for her among the stars, this was the best bet she had.

She wasn’t even disappointed when nothing caught her eye, too used to the disillusioning turns that life always took.

Raina was almost out of the room again when her own wrist gave her pause. The numbers on it were flickering frantically, their usual length shrinking and growing back and shrinking.

She stepped back from the door, deeper into the storage of Hydra’s most priced artefacts, and with every step the number grew smaller in the split second before it was replaced by the scrawl that wound around her wrist all those times.

It stopped sinking when she reached a glass case, taller than her, with a huge piece of rock inside.

Raina barely hesitated for a second before slipping the lock pick out of her sleeve and setting to work. Perhaps everyone had been wrong about soulmates. Perhaps Grandmother had been right about destinies, and just wrong about the numbers not relating to that.

She brushed her fingers against the cool stone, heart in her throat, waiting, dreading, hoping for something to happen. If nothing did, she wasn’t sure she could take it.

She hadn’t known that last little spark of hope was still buried inside of her. Letting it go felt like truly giving up.

“Please,”she whispered, to the stars and her destiny and perhaps even to her soulmate.

It was the stone that answered her: It turned to liquid and swallowed her whole.

The numbers had stopped flickering. There was only one left now; it felt strange to no longer have the string of numbers wrapped around her arm. The number had never been so small before.

It was getting smaller by the second.

Raina had picked a direction and started walking, then turned and went the other way when the number had grown. It was like a strange game of hot or cold, she thought, as she shielded her face against the wind and the sand as well as she could manage.

She was slowing down, her shoes not made for whatever desert this was - whatever planet this was - but the number on her wrist was not inclined to follow suit. It was falling faster, in fact.

It was not long until she saw the figure running towards her, skidding to a halt a few feet from her and hesitating.

Raina held out her arm, a silent question and answer to his confusion in one. He stepped forward and took hold of her arm, his thumb brushing over the zero now emblazoned there.

“Now that’s one hell of a trick, if you’re not real,”he said with a wry laugh.

It was hard to tell whether he was amused; he sounded oddly resigned, truly.

“I don’t know what that means,”Raina said. She almost painted her usual false, sugarsweet smile on, but then reminded herself this was her alleged soulmate. Surely that counted for something. She forewent the mask.“Do you have water? Not to make a bad first impression, but this planet kind of sucks.”

He chuckled at that, much more genuine.“Not just kind of. C’mon, I’ll show you home base. I’m Will, by the way.”

“Raina,”she said, eyeing him subtly as he led the way.

Not quite the destiny her grandmother had promised waited among the stars, perhaps, but not a bad find at all.


End file.
